Don't know if it's down to licensed retailers or not enough customers in NZ, but I usually get the boxed copy fro my birthday, and have been informed by my daughter that they can't find anyone who sells it this year.
Tried all the usual places, MightyApe, The Nile, Fishpond etc . EB Games say 'Out of Stock' but it looks like they are the only retailer who offers it - mail order only.
Anyone know of a reason why?

You can, I think, boost merch sales by getting affiliates in overseas markets.
Also, having a player come out as gay gives merch and attendance a boost.
AFAIK sponsorships are the Chairman's area, although success and more coverage helps.

A good balance between the number of clubs active, and number of players in the database.
Too many players and not enough clubs (and vice versa) can skew the transfer market in the save.
Personally, I tend to just load the leagues/nations and leave it at the default size.

Yup - what he said.
It is all so contextual it is almost impossible to answer with one post - although @OJ403 has don a damn good job.
Personally, if the highlights (I use Comprehensive as well) are mostly the opposition - where are they attacking from, is it one player? One area of the pitch? One particular form of attack? Firstly I will try and shut that down, either shut off passes to their player, close down and control that area of the pitch or tweak defenders to counteract a long ball - just three examples of what may happen.
Simply reassess the opponents strengths and weaknesses and adjust accordingly. Almost as if it were pre-match tactical set up again.

It's not about the window, it's about the whole year, or FFP period.
What did they do i nthe previous window? What will they do in the next window? What will happen with their sponsorship/ticket price/other income?

From what I can work out, you don't see the familiarity disc in the individual training if that is the position he is training in.
I can't tell you why, because I don't know, but the disc appears in the tactics creator which is where it is more relevant.
FOr some reason, the familiarity in AP/Support is shown in a green bar - at least I assume it is a familiarity indicator.

To be honest, I never take that much notice of the star rating for computer performance.
I believe (and I could be wrong) that it only indicates the current state of your computer - so if there are a lot of things running on the processor/RAM then it will be lower.
I usually run the game on 1 or 2 stars performance rating without too much issue. Yes it is little slower, but liveable.
As far as database size and player numbers - it's up to you. It does have an effect on transfer markets, and newgen creation, and some international teams and tournaments depending on leagues and nations loaded, but it does go without saying that the larger the database, and the more leagues active, the slower it will process between days.
I'm not one who can give you tested figures, but for me, it is more important to have a balanced database, than it is to save a few tenths of a second in processing.

If you mean the 'tick' in the individual training drop-down, then that just shows which position he is being trained in and has nothing to do with the green disc, that shows his familiarity with the position/role/duty.
The check mark is a training thing, the green disc is a tactical thing.
At least, I think that's what your question is about - some screenshots would help clarify.

Lower tempo, shorter passing, retain possession. Lst 20 minutes or less maybe drop deeper and get tighter - I use shouts a lot at this time as well "Concentrate" . Waste Time - all the usual stuff
Shoot on Sight can be a good timewaster as well, am more than happy to see people blast it in to row Z with five minutes to go.
Not sure if it helps, but add 'Play for Set Pieces' as a TI might eat some minutes up as well.

Full day rest after match, easy day on day 2/Match prep/travel. I generally have my players at 90% or slightly above if I forget about training anything other than rest/recovery/easy sessions. The longer it goes on though, the harder it gets. But a W/S/W/S schedule is pretty much what I set up in my friendlies anyway because there is room for recovery.